Let's just dispel this, internet bandwidth is not a very significant cost for access networks when compared to moving the data internally and maintaining the last mile access. That being said, incremental usage can drive huge capex, almost always in the very expensive last mile.
Most of our cost (as a cable provider) on a per-bit basis is between the head-end and the customer, or between the head-end and the regional pop. The main driver here should be obvious, the bigger the pipe on the same route, the cheaper the bits... A cable carrying 300 kbit/sec costs just as much to maintain and install as a cable carrying 300 gbit/sec on the outside plant side of the equation, and that is where the real cost is. John -----Original Message----- From: NANOG [mailto:nanog-boun...@nanog.org] On Behalf Of Rubens Kuhl Sent: Monday, July 14, 2014 10:07 AM To: Nanog Subject: Re: Verizon Public Policy on Netflix > > If Netflix were a good citizen, it would (a) let ISPs cache content; > (b) pay them equitably for direct connections (smaller and more remote > ISPs have higher costs per customer and should get MORE per account > than Comcast, rather than receiving nothing); and (c) work with ISPs > to develop updated technology that makes streaming more efficient. > Bandwidth is expensive, and unicast streaming without caching is by > far the most inefficient conceivable way of delivering "fat" content > to the consumer. > I noted most of the discussion seems to point to Internet bandwidth as a cost factor to ISPs, but I wonder what's the impact of Netflix on access network costs ? They might be harder to measure or directly correlate to streaming usage, but for non-wired networks (which is usually the case in rural networks), this impact sounds more harmful to me than uplink costs. Rubens
